Live Wires

Having spent too long wandering in debilitating heat to track down the Tambura Museum in Slavonski Brod (in eastern Croatia), only to find it locked and abandoned, I was not feeling particularly receptive to dealing with a CD of the instrument in its various shapes and sizes being plucked and strummed by the members of Söndörgő, a Hungarian family band. But I soon changed my mind. Although the tambura and its core repertoire from the Pannonian plain comprise the backbone of the group, they have plenty more to offer. Indeed, the first track hears the band closing a show – this is a live compilation – with an accordion-heavy reading of a traditional Serbian dance tune. On the whole, Söndörgő prefer upbeat dance tunes to the sentimental songs that have wedding guests swaying and embracing, and drone-based Macedonian and Greek instrumental workouts to more intricate melodies. Saxophone wizard Ferus Mustafov guests and pulls out every trick from his very considerable book on the old warhorse ‘Dada Sali’.

Even if it sometimes seems that the various styles they employ have been bolted together rather than absorbed, there's still much to enjoy here.